Adding a timer to an activity enhances engagement by introducing variety in activity types and rewarding quick, correct answers. It also helps diversify leaderboard scores and breaks ties. You can read about additional leaderboard tie-breaks here.
Note: Timed bonuses may not be suitable for learners with visual, cognitive, or motor disabilities. We recommend using this feature only if confirmed as accessible for all learners in a course.
Timed bonuses are set per course, allowing activities to be reused with or without them based on learning goals. Bonus points apply only if the answer is correct and submitted within the time limit.
Program Manager Experience
As a Program Manager, you can assign a timed bonus to any activity in your course. This setting applies only to that specific course - if the same activity or set is used elsewhere, the bonus must be re-applied.
The default number of seconds/points assigned to a Timed Activity is 30 - i.e. a timed activity will give a participant 30 seconds to earn a timed bonus with a maximum bonus of 30 points. This figure can be adjusted on the “Features” page when creating or editing a course:
The timed bonus activities duration and points can be edited at any time. If it is edited while a course is active, the Program Manager will receive the following warning:
Set an activity to be timed from the “View activities” page when creating or editing a course as shown below:
As with the timed duration, timed activities status on an activity can be edited at any time. If it is altered while a course is active, the Program Manager will see the following warnings:
Disabling a timed activity:
Enabling a timed question:
You can also view your activities and their timed status in the carousel view under the “Settings” details in the side panel:
Learner Experience
When a learner opens a timed activity, they are shown the activity stem only with any answer choices hidden, and given an explanation for how a timed activities works:
Once a learner clicks “Continue” the answer choices are displayed, along with a countdown timer:
If the activity is answered correctly, the learner will receive a number of timed bonus point equal to the amount of time that remained on the countdown when they clicked “Submit”:
If the activity is answered incorrectly or partially correctly, no timed bonus points are awarded.
If the timer runs out, the learner can still answer the activity, but will be awarded no timed bonus points.
If the learner navigates away from the activity after revealing the answer choices, when they return to it, the timer will continue to run (i.e. to prevent cheating).